BigRead13 Day 48 : Home

Today’s reading is Revelation 21 – found here rather than posting as it’s quite long. We are given the tale of the new Jerusalem – a new heaven – a new earth. Along with it, an excerpt from C S Lewis: “I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now…Come further up, come further in!” taken from The Last Battle.

What does it mean to come home? Revelation 21 is a pretty good answer to that. It is no surprise that is is often chosen for funerals. It can be comforting to the bereaved to know that all will become new. That their loved ones will be with them in a new heaven and on a new earth. But it is comforting to those of us who are not bereaved as we contemplate our own mortality too. This might sound like a macabre thought for what should surely be a happy time, Easter.

But if you think about it, it isn’t. Easter is a time for giving thanks – for victory on the cross as Jesus dies that we might be reconciled to God and God to us – and for victory in the resurrection as Jesus is raised up just as we may be risen up. As St Augustine said “We are an Easter people and Alleluia is our song”. What more reason to celebrate joyfully than to know that death is not the end. That sin and hell is not the end. That trusting in Jesus we may live again, be born again, live our lives anew. Perhaps in our Easter celebrations we see a glimpse of that new heaven and that new earth. Contagious joy amongst everyone I met at Church yesterday. And if you really want contagious joy, the Easter Monday pilgrimage at St Albans Cathedral proved to be rather a joyful event too – just see the video below!

Lord, let us be an Easter people. Let our joy and our confidence in the saving power of the risen Christ shine out among our friends, our family and everyone we meet. Let people wonder why we’re so happy about Easter – and let us tell them! And let us remember truly how glorious the world that is to come will be – “And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb.” Amen.